Voting Station

Max Delbruck

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Scientist

The Resume

    (September 4, 1906-March 9, 1981)
    Born in Berlin, Germany
    Became a naturalized US citizen (1945)
    With Salvador Lauria, conducted experiments that demonstrated statistically that inheritance in bacteriophages proceeded along Darwinian rather than Lamarckian lines
    He and Alfred Hershey independently discovered that different strains of bacteriophage can exchange genetic material when both strains infect the same bacteria cell
    Co-recipient with Luria and Hershey of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1969)

Why he might be annoying:

    He started in astronomy, moved to quantum physics, and ended up a biologist.
    After Watson and Clark determined the structure of DNA, he lost interest in molecular biology and moved on to studying molds, with far less impact.
    He was known for his blunt assessments, such as telling a lecturer, 'That was the worst seminar I ever heard,' or snapping about another scientist's findings, 'I don't believe a word of it.'

Why he might not be annoying:

    He was one of the founders of the science of molecular biology.
    James Watson called him 'the model for what I wanted out of my own life.'
    He proposed the 'Principle of Limited Sloppiness': researchers need to be sloppy enough for unexpected results to happen, but not so sloppy that they cannot reproduce the experiment.

Credit: C. Fishel


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Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying